How to Batch Content Around a Product Launch (Timeline + Checklist)

Film your launch content in three batches, and sort every video by how much of the finished product it shows.

1. Batch 1, about four weeks out: story videos. These cover the problem, why you built the product and what building it looked like. None of them need the final UI, so you can film them while the product is still changing.
2. Batch 2, one week out: demo and launch videos, filmed after you stop changing the screens you'll show.
3. Launch day: film almost nothing. Your scheduled videos post themselves. You record one quick phone video and spend the day replying to people.
4. Batch 3, three days after launch: follow-up videos that answer the questions people asked on launch day.

That works out to three filming days instead of filming every day during the busiest month of your year. The rest of this post gives you the timeline, what to film in each batch, a checklist, and a planner that turns your launch date into real dates.

Sort every launch video by how much of the product it shows

The easiest mistake to make is filming the demos too early. The UI changes, and you end up filming them again in launch week. You can avoid that by sorting each video before you film it.

The left side of this table can be filmed any time. The right side has to wait until your product stops changing. Keep the two apart and you'll never re-shoot a video because a button moved.

Do this now: list every launch video you want, then put each one in Batch 1, Batch 2, launch day or Batch 3 using the table above.

The timeline, from six weeks out to two weeks after

Here's the full plan. "T" is launch day, so T-28 means 28 days before launch.

Work out your own dates

Put in your launch date and how often you want to post. The planner gives you dated filming days and the number of videos each batch needs.

The filming times are estimates, not measurements. We assumed 10 to 15 minutes for a 30 to 45 second talking-head video with one or two retakes. A demo takes longer, because you reset the app between takes. If you've batched before, use your own numbers.

Do this now: enter your launch date, then put the three filming days in your calendar before you read the rest.

Batch 1: film the story while the product is still changing

Batch 1 is the biggest batch and the most flexible one. Nothing in it depends on the product being finished, so you can film it on any day you're free.

It also does the job most founders skip: it gets people used to seeing you before you ask them for anything. One founder who finished #48 on Product Hunt wrote on r/SaaS that launch-day activity "is mostly the harvest of months of being a useful presence." Other founders on r/SaaS and r/startups say they wish they'd built a waitlist or an audience before launch.

A Batch 1 shot list for 12 videos (4 weeks at 3 a week) looks like this:

BATCH 1: STORY VIDEOS (film at T-31)
 
Problem (4 videos)
  1. The exact moment the problem cost you time or money
  2. How people solve it today, and where that breaks
  3. A mistake you see customers make, and what it costs them
  4. A number that shows how big the problem is (only if you can source it)
 
Why we built it (3 videos)
  5. The day you decided to build it
  6. What you tried before building it
  7. Who it's for, and who it's NOT for
 
Behind the scenes (3 videos)
  8. A rough early sketch or first prototype next to where it is now
  9. A decision you argued about as a team
 10. A bug or problem you fixed this month
 
Teasers (2 videos, post in the final 10 days)
 11. A 2-second cropped glimpse of the product + "Launching <date>"
 12. "One week. Here's what it does in one sentence."

Change two things between groups of videos: your top and your background. Then four videos posted in a row won't look like the same clip. Our batch scripting guide covers how to write a dozen of these in one sitting. Fill gaps with cutaways from a 30-minute B-roll shoot.

Do this now: copy the shot list, replace each line with your own story, and book Batch 1 for T-31.

Batch 2: film the demos after the UI freeze

Batch 2 needs the product to look the way it will look on launch day. That's why the timeline puts a UI freeze at T-10. You can still fix bugs after the freeze. You just can't move, rename or restyle anything a demo shows.

Supabase uses the same rule for engineering. They ask for major integrations to be done a week early so launch week doesn't break production. If you're shipping a mobile app, leave room for review too. Apple says 90% of submissions get reviewed in less than 24 hours, but a rejection can cost you days, so submit before Batch 2.

Before you film:

• Set up a demo account with realistic data. Empty dashboards make the product look unused. Fake names like "Test User 3" make it look unfinished.
• Record at full resolution and crop later. Most products are wide. Record the full screen, then crop to 9:16 around the part that matters. Our guide to reframing horizontal footage shows how to keep the subject in frame.
• Pick a screen recorder. OBS Studio is free on Windows, Mac and Linux. Screen Studio adds automatic zooms on your clicks and costs $29 a month, or about $9 a month billed yearly. It only runs on macOS.
• Keep the setup simple. Resend recorded the videos for their launch week with a tripod, a basic mounted microphone and natural light. They filmed a video for each feature at a team offsite in February, ahead of the launch.

Each demo should show one feature solving one task, start to finish. Open with the result on screen in the first 2 seconds, then show how you got there. Record a 5-second talking-head intro for each demo on the same day, so you can put your face on the front of a screen recording.

Then the launch video. Product Hunt doesn't require one, but about 53% of products that reached Product of the Day since 2021 included a video. Product Hunt only accepts YouTube links, and the video can't be private. Upload it as unlisted during Batch 2 so you aren't fixing a broken link at midnight.

Caption every video in this batch before you schedule it, so it still makes sense to anyone scrolling with the sound off. A captioning tool like Sycamore does this step in a few minutes. CapCut's auto captions work too. Our TikTok captions guide compares the options.

Do this now: set your UI freeze date, tell your team, and book Batch 2 three days after it.

Schedule launch week around TikTok's 10-day limit

Each platform has a different limit for how far ahead you can schedule:

TikTok is the tight one. If your last launch-week video goes out on day 6, the earliest you can schedule it is four days before launch. So edit Batch 2 between T-7 and T-5, then schedule all three platforms on T-4 in one sitting.

On YouTube, link each launch Short to your full demo. In Studio, open the Short and pick a related video. Viewers then see a clickable link under your channel name. The linked video has to be public or unlisted, and your channel needs advanced features turned on.

For more on timing, see our post on best times to post. In short, the hour matters much less than getting the video out.

Do this now: put a "schedule launch week" block in your calendar for T-4.

Launch day: post, film one phone video, then reply

On launch day your job is replying to people. Filming anything new takes time away from that.

Plan the morning to the minute. Supabase's launch-day plan lists every step with a time: a reminder tweet at 7:30, Product Hunt at 7:55, the blog post at 8:00, then investor outreach at 8:10. You don't need that many steps. You do need a written order, so you aren't deciding what to post while people are commenting.

If you launch on Product Hunt:

• The day starts at 12:01am Pacific Time, and launching then gives you a full 24 hours.
• Post a first comment that explains who you are and what you built. Product Hunt says 70% of products that won Product of the Day, Week or Month had one.
• Don't ask people to upvote. Ask them to visit and comment.

Film one video on your phone in the afternoon. Keep it short and simple. Something like: "We've been live for 8 hours. Here's the question we got most." It's the one video you couldn't film in advance. It also shows people that a real person is behind the launch.

Do this now: write your launch-day run sheet with times, and decide who replies on which channel.

Batch 3: turn launch-day questions into the next two weeks

Most launch plans stop at launch day, so posting goes quiet right when people are deciding whether to try the product. Batch 3 fills that gap, and it's the easiest batch to write, because your audience wrote the topics for you.

On launch day, paste every question and objection into one doc. On T+3, group them and film one answer per group:

BATCH 3: FOLLOW-UPS (film at T+3)
 
From launch-day questions
  1. The question you got most, answered with a screen recording
  2. "Does it work with <tool>?" (show it working)
  3. The pricing question, answered plainly
  4. The objection you heard most, and your honest answer
 
From what happened
  5. Launch numbers you're comfortable sharing, and what surprised you
  6. A feature someone asked for that you're now building
  7. A first user's result (ask them first)

Resend publishes a recap after each launch week. In their fourth one they reported 45% more impressions than the launch week before. Motion did 15 launches in one month and shared their numbers afterwards, including the launches that flopped. Adish Jain wrote that "the important part is not that every launch was huge. Some were. Some were not." A plain recap like that makes a good Batch 3 video too.

Once you've posted Batch 3, go back to your normal routine. Our posts on planning a month of content in one afternoon and batching vs posting daily cover the after-launch rhythm.

Do this now: create the questions doc before launch day, and pin it where everyone on the team will see it.

Copy this launch content plan

LAUNCH: <product> on <date>  (T = launch day)
 
T-31  Film Batch 1 (story)        ___ videos   Done: [ ]
T-30  Product Hunt scheduled                   Done: [ ]
T-28  First pre-launch video live              Done: [ ]
T-21  Press / newsletters contacted            Done: [ ]
T-10  UI freeze + demo account ready           Done: [ ]
T-7   Film Batch 2 (demos + launch video)  ___ videos   Done: [ ]
T-5   Batch 2 edited + captioned               Done: [ ]
T-4   Launch week scheduled on all platforms   Done: [ ]
T     Launch. Phone video. Reply all day.      Done: [ ]
T+3   Film Batch 3 (follow-ups)    ___ videos  Done: [ ]
T+21  Recap: what worked, what to change       Done: [ ]
 
Questions doc: <link>
Run sheet:     <link>
Who replies where: <name> = TikTok/IG, <name> = Product Hunt, <name> = email

Launch content checklist

Check these before each batch.

Before Batch 1

• Every launch video is sorted into Batch 1, Batch 2, launch day or Batch 3
• Launch date picked and written down
• Batch 1 scripts or bullet outlines written
• Two tops and two backgrounds ready

Before Batch 2

• UI frozen, and the team knows it
• Demo account set up with realistic data
• Notifications off on the recording computer
• Screen recorder tested at full resolution
• Mobile app submitted for review (if you have one)

Before launch day

• Launch video uploaded to YouTube as unlisted, link tested
• All launch-week videos captioned and scheduled (TikTok on T-4 or later)
• Launch Shorts linked to the full demo as a related video
• Product Hunt first comment written
• Run sheet with times, plus who replies where
• Questions doc created

After launch

• Batch 3 filmed by T+3
• First users asked if you can feature them
• A short recap written for next time

If you launch in less than two weeks

You won't have time for four weeks of Batch 1. Squeeze it like this:

1. Film one combined batch now. Film 3 story videos and every demo on the same day. Only do this if your UI won't change again.
2. Post one story video every other day until launch. That's enough to show you exist.
3. Keep Batch 3 the same. Follow-ups need the least setup and give you the most, because launch day writes the topics for you.

If you can move the launch date by two weeks, move it. Your first launch-week videos will reach more people.

The short version

• Sort every launch video by how much of the final product it shows.
• Film story videos four weeks out (Batch 1), demos a week out after a UI freeze (Batch 2), and follow-ups three days after launch (Batch 3).
• Start posting at least four weeks before launch. Teasers only work if your account already reaches people.
• Schedule launch week on T-4, because TikTok's scheduler only reaches 10 days ahead.
• On launch day, post what you scheduled, film one phone video, and spend the rest of the day replying.
• Turn launch-day questions into your next two weeks of videos.

Sources and further reading

1. How we launch at Supabase, Ant Wilson, Supabase, November 2021
2. Launch Week: Behind the Scenes, Zeno Rocha, Resend, updated July 2026
3. Prepare for your Product Hunt launch, Product Hunt
4. Maximizing your launch ROI: A timeline for success, Jamie Sprowl, Product Hunt, July 2023
5. We launched 15 times in 30 days, Adish Jain, Motion, July 2026
6. How to Grow on Social Media in 2026: A Data-Backed Guide, Buffer, June 2026
7. Video Scheduler: Plan TikToks in advance, TikTok for Business
8. How to create and manage scheduled posts and Reels, Instagram Help
9. Schedule video publish time and Add a related video to your Shorts, YouTube Help
10. Trial reels, Instagram Creators
11. App Review, Apple Developer
12. Reddit threads: "We launched on Product Hunt and ended #48" and "Product Hunt launch in 10 days" on r/SaaS, and "Things you wished you did before launching?" on r/startups